


loose shoelaces

by lizamarri



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Austin just wants to play his saxaphone, BAMF Nico di Angelo, BAMF Piper McLean, Because yes, Fluff, Head of the Infirmary Will Solace, I'm Serious, It's so fluffy you're gonna die, Kayla is so done with both of them not getting their shit together, M/M, Nico Feels, Nico and Piper are sparring buddies, Nico is a Dork, Nico-centric, Oops, POV Nico di Angelo, They're all dorks, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Will Solace is a Dork, and it's so cliche you're gonna faint, i should be finishing up my slow burn but I just wrote 3k words of fluff, let me stress again that kayla wants to go tf home, nico almost broke his nose, nico gets a bloody nose, set in camp half-blood, they're so dorky i can't stress it enough, this was written in thirty minutes and beta-read once by yours truly so please don't hate me, which makes him talk to will, will patches him up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24061234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizamarri/pseuds/lizamarri
Summary: It all started with a pair of shoelaces. Loose shoelaces.Those loose shoelaces made him trip, expert warrior-hero qualities be damned, and smack his head on the table. His only choice will be to go to Will Solace, in the infirmary.Things get complicated after that.
Relationships: Kayla Knowles & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo & Kayla Knowles, Nico di Angelo & Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo & The Seven, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 16
Kudos: 270





	loose shoelaces

It started with a loose shoelace.

That loose shoelace snowballed into a trip, which caused a bloody nose, which led him here. 

The infirmary. 

_ It’s not exactly a bad place,  _ Nico thinks as he scuffs his combat boots on the floor, legs dangling off the chair Kayla told him to sit in. He’s always been a little gangly, more muscle and bone then normal kids. 

His hand is still pinched over his nose, just like Kayla instructed. He can feel the blood on his hands and his face, it’s dripping down his lip slowly. He tastes iron, the sharp tang permeating his mouth.

“Careful,” someone advises. “I just cleaned the floor.”

Nico rolls his eyes. “Don’t we have harpies for that?”

Will Solace shrugs, blonde hair glinting viciously off the sun rays streaming in through the windows. “There’s a bit of charm to doing things yourself.”

“Only you would say that,” he grumbles. 

Solace cracks a grin, before tilting his head to an empty bed. Nico sits carefully on it, blood-drenched hand still pinching his nose.

Kayla comes in, escorting out an embarrassed-looking Valentina Diaz. “That’s all of them,” She comments. “You’ve got di Angelo?”

“Yep.”

Kayla nods, her eyes glinting strangely. “M’kay then. I’ll escort this rascal,” she nudges the girl in the shoulder, “back to her cabin. Make sure Mitchell keeps them in check.”

Nico’s eyebrows scrunch up. “I thought Piper was head counselor for the Aphrodite Cabin?”

“Mitchell does most of the public relations stuff, really. Piper’s never been into the whole gossip-and-fashion thing like the rest of them.” She gives Will a wave, before walking Valentina out of the infirmary. Nico realizes, with a jolt, that the two of them are now alone. 

“So,” Will asks. “How’d this happen?”

Nico winces. “Lose shoelace. Smacked my head on the camp table.”

“Ouch.”

“You don’t know half of it,” Nico scoffs. “Jason was laughing his ass off.”

Will gently removes his fingers from his nose, and Nico flexes them, feeling the blood dry and grow sticky. 

Will presses onto the bridge of his nose gently. “Well, it doesn’t look broken, which is a pretty big miracle considering, so I think you’re gonna be ok.” He turns around, grabbing a bottle and pouring a bit of the liquid into a cup. He hands it to Nico, who drinks it in one go. He expected ambrosia, but it's a unicorn draught. How does Will know unicorn draught works better on him?

“It’s almost as though I’ve gotten a worse wound then an almost-broken nose,” he remarks dryly.

Will pulls back. “Did Nico di Angelo just… make a joke? I thought I’d never live to see this day!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

Will hands him a wet cloth, pressing a second to Nico’s nose. Nico uses the first cloth to wipe the dried blood from his hands, staining the fabric a faint, streaky pink. 

“You gotta be a little more careful, though,” Will murmurs. “You’re in here almost every week.”

Nico shrugs. “Occupational hazard.”

Will holds his shoulders down, calloused hands on the sleeves of his new leather jacket. It’d been a present from Hazel, ever since she figured out his old one had gotten lost in the mess that was the Pit and the Doors. He strongly suspects Reyna had some help in acquiring it. 

Will leans a little farther, cleaning off a bit of blood from his cheek. “Only you could get blood all over your face.”

Nico stays silent, tensing slightly. 

“There,” Will says. “You’re good.” He scoots back a little bit, plucking the wet rag from Nico’s hand. “Tell me if it starts bleeding again, I’ll give you some more draught. And try not to go smacking your head into any more tables, okay?”

“Yeah,” Nico says, distractedly. “Yeah, um,” he looks back, brushing a bit of hair out of his eyes. “Will- thanks.”

Something flashes in Will’s eyes, and the blonde smiles. “Anytime, Death Boy.”

Nico twitches his fingers, nails scraping into his palm. He turns around, a little ridgedly. “How come you call me that?”

Will frowns. “What, Death Boy? Uh, you literally summon skeletons and zombies, dude.”

“No, not-” Nico makes a little grunt of mirth. “Why do you spend time with me?”

“I’m your friend,” Will says, gaze bright like his father’s symbol. “Besides, I like spending time with you.”

“That’s what’s, um, confusing me,” Nico stutters. “I’m not really nice. Or smart, like Annabeth, or funny like Percy, or honest like Jason, or kind like Hazel… I’m just… well, you said it. A literal incarnation of death.”

Will drops the rags, stepping forward a little. “Nico… I’m friends with you because you’re  _ you. _ No one wants you to be like anyone else.”

“I- I know,” Nico stutters. “I guess I just get- I don’t know.”

Will bites his lip. “You put too much on yourself, Death Boy.”

“I know,” Nico murmurs. “I’m trying not to.” To his horror, tears begin to bud in his eyes. One slides down before he can stop it. 

Will closes the space between them and pulls him into a hug. His first instinct is to flinch, or tense up, or at the very least push Will away. But he doesn’t want to, because Will’s arms are warm and his embrace is soft and welcoming. He sinks into it instead, tears soaking into Will’s orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt.

But within seconds, the hug grows awkward. Will lets him go, and Nico reluctantly relinquishes his hold on Will. 

He’s noticing far too much on Will’s face. He’s noticing the spray of freckles that all Apollo kids seem to have, but the ones that look far more pretty on Will’s face than, say, Kayla or Austin. He’s noticing Will’s eyes, his pale blue eyes the color of the sky. He’s categorizing the way Will’s mop of curls gleams in the light.

At the last second, before he should turn around and leave, Nico leans forward and kisses him.

It’s fast, and far too quick, and their lips barely touch before Nico pulls away. His mouth falls open in horror, and he takes a step back on instinct. “Oh my gods.”

Will looks frozen, his eyes stuck wide. 

“I’m sorry, I-”

Will grabs his arm, tugging him closer again. “Nico-”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know-”

“Nico.”

“I’m just gonna go, Will, let me-”

“Nico.”

His hands won’t move, and his breath hitches in his throat. “Y-yeah?”

Will leans close. Nico can feel the faint puff of Will’s breath on his cheeks. “Stop talking,” he murmurs, barely loud enough for Nico to hear.

“Ok.”

Will’s hand curls around his jaw, dragging him closer. Nico feels their noses brush, and then closes his eyes. 

The feeling of Will’s lips on his is like something he’s never experienced. It’s normal and insane at the same time. It feels like something in his stomach’s been set on fire. 

Will’s hand tightens on his jaw, finding its way to the back of his neck. Nico breathes out of his nose, having forgotten how to breathe. He brings a hand up, placing it on Will’s face like Will’s was on his. 

Will pushes a little, moving his jaw, and Nico’s hand tenses out of reflexes. A tiny sound escapes his mouth without his permission, and Will’s other hand comes up to frame his cheek. 

Nico’s brain begins to work again, and he deepens the kiss, tugging lightly on Will’s curls. He can feel the brush of Will’s teeth against his lip, and the boy’s calloused fingers brushing his cheek.

It’s over within minutes, after a ferocious game of push and pull, and Nico steps back.

Will exhales, and his lips are plump and red. The only thought coursing through his mind is,  _ I did that. _

“So,” Will breathes. “That happened.”

“Yeah.”

“Um,” Will stutters, cringing so much one of his eyes almost closes. “Do you want to go out?”

“On a…”

“On a date, yeah.”

Nico bites his lip, face breaking into a tentative smile. “I- yeah. Yeah, that’d be really nice.”

Will grins. “We’re idiots.”

“You’re the idiot, Solace,” Nico remarks. He rolls his eyes. “I cannot believe you. I wasn’t even born in this century and I know how cliche that was!”

Will huffs. “I was desperate!”

Nico prods his nose a bit, checking his fingers for blood. There’s none. “Well, guess I’m healed, Doctor Solace.”

Will blushes. “Alright then, Death Boy. I’ll see you later.”

The strangest thing about Will Solace is the boy is his complete opposite. 

Will is a morning person, he isn’t. Will smiles all the time, and he barely smiles at all. Will loves to ramble, and Nico hates it.

It shouldn’t work. It shouldn’t work at all. 

But it really, really does. 

Being around Will… Gods, it just makes him feel  _ better. _ Happier, especially. And whenever Will smiles, he ends up smiling too. However small. 

It’s stupid. It’s so, so stupid, and they’re complete opposites but they work. And it’s amazing.

They have a routine. Will gets up ridiculously early along with most of the Apollo cabin, and Nico sleeps in until about eight or nine. He’s dressed, and on the training ground by ten. Depending on what’s happening, he’s either sparring with himself (that happens most of the time) or a partner. He and Piper have ended up working a lot together, as he’s a good person for him to take her fury out on. Plus, her charmspeak doesn’t work on him. 

The latter is a little more troubling. Not the thing itself, but that Piper’s figured it out. She announces it, one day, catching him completely off guard. 

His day started simple enough, just like all the others. Piper came up to him and asked if he wanted to spar, and like usual, he said yes. Sword on sword, no powers or extra weapons allowed. 

Piper unsheathes her golden blade, swinging it around playfully. 

“Be careful with that,” Nico reprimands. 

Piper waves a hand at him. “Oh shut up. You know I’m capable with this thing.”

“Then prove it,” he challenges, and Piper’s face breaks into a wicked grin. The fight is on. 

She rushes forward with a battle cry, bringing her blade across her chest and arcing towards his neck. Nico drops into a forward roll, dodging the strike, and bringing his own blade up to Piper’s midsection in a slash. 

She shoots backwards, curving her rip\bs so the Stygian Iron barely brushes her tank top. 

Nico aims another strike, this one parallel to her sternum, but Piper blocks it with her sword. The sound of metal on metal rings out, quickly dampened by the following shriek of their blades crashing together as he blocks her strike this time.

“You’re getting better,” Nico admits. “But you’re leaving yourself a little unguarded and a little too guarded at the same time, you have to learn to have offense and defense at once, not just switch between the two.”

Piper doesn’t speak, but she carves her blade down towards his head as her answer. He blocks it, but she pushes her blade down to his hilt, causing an unearthly shriek of metal scraping on metal to rise.

She twists her blade, forcing his sword from his grip, but Nico sidesteps, catching his weapon before it can hit the ground and bouncing back up again, tripping Piper and sending her sword out of her hand before she can blink. He forces her to the floor, and she screams, “FREEZE!”

The command doesn’t work on him, and he merely pushes her to the ground, a knee on her ribs and his sword at her throat. “I thought we said no power, McLean?”

Piper cringes. “Sorry. I panicked.”

He lets her up, even extending a hand, which she grabs gratefully before scooping up her sword and marching to the water cooler. 

Piper looks behind her as she’s rummaging through the bin, pulling out two ice-cold waters. “How come that charmspeak didn’t work on you?” she asks. 

Nico almost chokes on his spit. 

Piper takes a sip out of her water bottle, and she hands one to Nico. He accepts it gratefully, pulling up his shirt to wipe sweat from his forehead.

“I know that powerful charmspeak should have done something,” Piper complains. “What do you have, di Angelo? Iron will? Earplugs?”

“Homosexuality,” he answers, truthfully, before realizing he’s even said it. 

Piper spits a stream of water out, looking up at him with a gaping expression. “What?”

Nico panics. Why did he do that? Why did he  _ say _ that? What the actual Eternal-Pit-Of-Damnation?!

“Nico?” Piper asks again, her tone more gentle. The shock is gone from her eyes. “What- are you-”

“Yeah,” he admits, taking a swig of water to hide his trembling hands. “I’m, uh, I’m gay.”

For a second, a terrible second, nothing happens. 

And then Piper breaks into a smile. She grins, probably bigger than he’s ever seen, and pulls him into a hug.    
They’re both sweaty and gross, he’s still holding an uncapped water bottle, and for some annoying reason Piper has to lean down a smidge to hug him, but… it’s perfect.

Piper eventually releases him, her multi colored eyes twinkling with happiness and a little spark of mischief, as always. “I’m so, so glad you told me Nico,” she says. “Really. It means a lot to me.”

“Thanks,” he says. “That’s really- thank you, Piper.”

She gives him one last quick, one-armed hug, before grabbing her sword again from where she’s dumped it in it’s sheath on the training ground floor. “Well then, Ghost King, you ready for another round?”

Nico’s face breaks into one of his rare grins, his battle grin. “Always.”

It’s not until a few days later that something of actual note happens. 

It came of a surprise, really. For Nico, it’s been a difficult few days. Capture the Flag was almost half a week ago, but the infirmary is still filled with patients from another one of the Stoll’s rabid explosive experiments. This one was, unfortunately, in collaboration with the Hecate cabin, meaning not only there are physical injuries, but magical ones too. 

Needless to say, his boyfriend’s been swamped. And Nico isn’t mad or anything, he just… misses him. _ Gods, that’s so pathetic, _ he thinks. 

“Hey, Nico,” someone laughs. “Come sit with us!”

It’s Jason, with Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Katie Gardener, Mitchell, and the Stoll twins. Nico nods, sliding in next to a spot beside Piper. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Mitchell answers. “I’d like to formally apologize for my boyfriend-”

“Mitchell!” 

“And his horrible exploding disasters.” Mitchel nods his dyed-shockingly-blue head, glaring at Conner Stoll. “Isn’t that right, Conner,” he commands firmly.

“Very right, completely true, and much apologies.”

Mitchell grimaces. “Sorry dude, that’s the best you’re gonna get.”

“Um, sorry, but why are you apologizing to me?”

Mitchell shrugs. “It’s keeping your boyfriend in the infirmary overtime, right?”

Piper spits out a mouthful of Sprite. She seems to be spitting out a lot of things lately. “You’re  _ what?!” _

Mitchell claps a hand over his mouth. “Oh no. Crap, I’m sorry. I thought-”

“Nico!” Someone cries over the green, and Nico's head snaps up. “Hang on a second, guys,” he says, before standing and jogging across the U of cabins. “Hey,” he greets. “Finally get out?”

“Sort of,” Will pants. “They needed someone to run a message to Chiron. I volunteered. Who’s gonna notice if I take an extra five minutes, right?”

Nico smiles minutely. “Look at Will Solace, quite the rebel now.”

“Shut up,” Will whines, waving a hand around embarrassedly. 

They cross behind the Ares cabin, and Nico kicks a spare piece of barbed wire out of the way. “So, Mitchell knows about our relationship.”

“Oh,” Will says. “Is that good or… bad?”

“I’m not sure,” Nico postulates. “You know, we’ve been doing this for three weeks-”

“Three weeks and two days,” Will interjects. 

“And, you know, I think it’s time we told some people. I mean, maybe not the whole camp but… yeah.”

Will’s face lights up. “Yeah.”

Nico waits outside when WIll delivers the message, it’s probably something involving the minor curse that was in those damned Stoll explosives. He swears to Hades, those two brothers are definitely going to destroy at least one major city someday. 

He waits for Will to walk back out, and offers his hand. 

“Going to walk me back to the infirmary?”

“If I can’t have a date, I’ll settle for a walk.”

Will tightens his grip on Nico’s hand. “I’m really sorry, by the way, about the whole infirmary thing. It’s just they really need me, and as Cabin Counselor and the best healer I really should be there, and-”

“Whoa, slow down Sunshine,” Nico interrupts. “I’m not mad at you. And if I ever get too grumpy, I’ll go talk to Jason for five minutes and come running back to you to escape his nobility.”

“Good,” Will chuckles. “Because I know your type, di Angelo.”

They’ve arrived at the infirmary, sitting atop the little hill by the big house. It’s a low-slung building, with airy windows and wooden bed frames. He can hear Austin yelling something faintly from inside. Nico squints, trying to discern his voice from the racket.

Will winces. “Yes, apparently this is taking away from his saxaphone time and therefore the next time he sees either Stoll he’s going to murder them. Austin, by the way.”\

“Charming,” Nico remarks. “I’ll be sure to remind Mitchell when I next see him to reign in his boyfriend.”

There’s a slight pause, and Nico remembers something from their previous conversation. “So what is my type then, huh?”

A shit-eating grin creeps it’s way back onto Will’s face. “Oh, let me think. Blonde for one. Freckles.” He blinks innocently. “Blue eyes.”

“Oh shut up,” Nico laughs. He grabs the collar of Will’s stupid orange shirt, and pulls him in for a kiss.

Faintly, Nico can hear whoops from the lawn, one of the voices he knows specifically to be Piper’s. But he ignores it in favor of his boyfriend. 

“You know,” Nico whispers into his ear. “You were right. And there’s one other thing about my type that you certainly fulfil.”

“And what’s that?”

“Excellent kisser,” Nico murmurs, before pressing a chaste kiss to Will’s jaw. “Now, go save lives, or… whatever. Save the Stoll brothers from execution via angry musicians.”

Will grins. “I’ll try my best.” He turns, and with a final salute, Nico’s boyfriend is gone. 

Nico walks back to the table, sliding into his old seat next to Piper. 

“Why are you staring at me?” he mutters. “You and Jason are gross all the time.”

“Of all of the people,” Jason wonders. “I would never have thought Will Solace. You’re both so… different, you know?”

Nico shrugs. “It’s a bit ironic, but it works.” He blushes, a light tinge of red staining his pale olive cheeks. “Really, really well.”

Annabeth whoops teasingly, and Nico waves her off, suppressing his grin.

Piper squeals quietly, shaking her head around. “I can’t believe you have a boyfriend!”

Nico looks back to where Will last was before he went into the infirmary. “Yeah… I can’t believe it either.”

**Author's Note:**

> this is total shit i should be finishing by slow burn not writing mindless fluff
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr @all-this-panic-still-no-disco


End file.
